Mitzy joins GWI as our Programming Manager. She brings a deep commitment to community, transformation, and ancestral wisdom to her work at GWI. Rooted in both Aymara and Quechua lineage and guided by her ceremonial name Anka Uma Kuntur Sonqo (Eagle Mind, Condor Heart), she approaches leadership with curiosity, playfulness and a belief in the power of transition. Whether through relationship-building, collective learning, or reimagining how we share power and navigate conflict, Mitzy is dedicated to helping create the conditions for a more connected and equitable future.
Who is Mitzy?
So many multidimensional answers come up with this question. But at this moment, what is resonating is sharing who I am through the names given to me at birth and later in ceremony. Mitzy is the name given to me the day I was born because my mother wanted me to carry happiness, playfulness and spirit. Little did she know that Mitzy also means rebellious which thankfully made me a playful, spirited, rebel always chasing the sun even when my internal skies were gray. Clementina, my middle name, honors my Aymara Grandmother and Bautista honors my Quechua Grandfather – allowing both of their lineages to live on through me.
Anka Uma Kuntur Sonqo (Eagle Mind Condor Heart) is the other name that I carry through ceremony. I like to think I was destined to be born here in Turtle Island, the land of the eagles and that my heart is like the condor that soars over the vast Andean Altiplano as a reminder that the medicine of the ancestors know no geographical boundary.
What brings you joy?
It is always the small things that bring me the most joy. It’s the stomach-aching laugh from a shared silly moment. Being human can be a funny experience. For me, joy also lives in the moments when the armor we are forced to wear comes off and I can see you and you can see me. It’s in the magical play through nature and medicine songs. But above all, I find joy in the in-between energies akin to Spring, Fall, half moons, Wednesdays, or any transitional space. These are the moments that make the tides turn. Yes, they can be messy but it is the underdog medicine. It is coming out of the dark. It is shifting your destiny. I love witnessing these moments in all its forms, in movies, music, nature, and especially in the people who trust me to walk with them as they shift their reality from fate to destiny. What joy to be reminded we are all connected and need each other. One day you, one day me.
What excites you about being part of the team at GWI?
This is a space where we are not just sharing the framework of a new way of collaborating but we are living it too as a worker-led non profit.
That is a lot of fun for me. We are all committed to learning here. Plus, we are all committed to this journey together even if that means being uncomfortable. My curiosity feeds me and GWI is the sort of space that holds that curiosity through everything we do. I’m thrilled to be here.
When someone asks you, “What do you do?”, how do you explain your Good Work?
With just 3 months into this work, I find myself answering this in different ways. Lately, I hear myself saying that our work is a reply to a question. What kind of society do I want to be a part of? What does that look like?
The good work at Good Work institute is a response to this question not as an answer but as an act of practice. The practice of how we can function with power differently, and how we can function with conflict differently. We can dream and vision the future we want, but are we also ready to be a part of creating the needed infrastructure so that these dreams and visions, once born, have a firm nest to evolve from? Let’s keep holding the vision but it’s time to make the nest. This is how the future becomes reality.
